What to Read this Summer?
Summer reading means some tough decisions: the mystery or memoir? "Chick lit" or literary fiction? With help from some experts, it's time to craft your summer reading list.
Laura Miller, book critic for Salon.com
Maud Newton, literary blogger at maudnewton.com
ZZ Packer, author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, a collection of eight stories
Recommended Reading:
Laura Miller's Suggestions:
Book of Air & Shadows, by Michael Gruber
Grave Tattoo, by Val McDermid
Nerve Damage, by Peter Abraham
What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman
Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann
The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh, by David Damrosch
Privilege and Scandal: The Remarkable Life of Harriet Spencer, Sister of Georgiana, by Janet Gleeson
Maud Newton's Recommendations:
In the Drink, by Kate Christensen
Jeremy Thrane, by Kate Christensen
The Epicure's Lament, by Kate Christensen
The Great Man, by Kate Christensen
The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham
Cakes and Ale, by W. Somerset Maugham
Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee
The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolano
Magic or Madness, by Justine Larbelestier
The End of Mr. Y, by Scarlett Thomas
The Ministry of Special Cases, by Nathan Englander
ZZ Packer's Recommendations:
The Mistress' Daughter, by A.M. Homes
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon
The True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey
The Space Between the Stars, by Deborah Santana
Recommended By Listeners:
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carl Ruiz Zafron
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
Falling Man, by Don DeLillo
The Bullfighter Checks her Makeup, by Susan Orlean
Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky
I, Claudius, by Robert Graves
A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin
Swann's Way, by Marcel Proust
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by ZZ Packer
Books For Kids:
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
Henry's Freedom Box, by Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
The "Ramona" books by Beverly Clearly
